Last week the internet was awash in articles claiming that former Secretary of the Navy and Democratic Senator James Webb was under consideration to be the next Secretary of Defense. This turned out to be fake news, which is the best fake news we’ve heard in a long time, because Webb would have made a terrible Secretary of Defense.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday, “We’ll have offers on the table when we find somebody that’s not crazy to deal with…” judging by what the Democrats’ leaders are saying it looks like it is going to be a long shutdown, if it can’t end until someone who is not crazy represents them at the negotiating table.

Joining with the enemy makes you a traitor and earns nothing but derision from decent people. If you don’t believe it ask (former) Senators Flake and Corker how they’re feeling these days. Mitt Romney will survive his latest brush with political death -- but he shouldn’t go tempting fate any longer.

Clearly Romney senses Trump is in trouble, and may not survive, or may not run, and there may be an opening for him. He seems to want to be properly positioned with the anti-Trumpers and never-Trumpers, should that happen. Yet, in seeing Trump as besieged, Romney is not wrong. Today, unelected media, not elected politicians, decide what gets attention. For our media, President Trump is the issue, as he was in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and removing him from the presidency the strategic goal.

For all the pro- and anti-Trump invective and media hysteria, the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation circus, and the bitter midterm elections, the U.S. was relatively calm in 2018 compared with the rest of the world. There was none of the mass rioting, demonstrations, and street violence that occurred recently in France, and none of the existential and unsolvable divides over globalization and Brexit that we saw in Europe. In sum, the more media pundits claimed that America was on the brink of disaster in 2018, the more Americans became prosperous and secure.

In his first two years, Mr. Trump has experienced the unprecedented wrath of the ruling class, whose power and influence he has gravely threatened. This is why in Year Three, he must concentrate his efforts to protect and advance the movement he’s leading. This is also why the rest of us mustn’t abandon the fight. That doesn’t mean we must agree with him on everything. It means we grasp what’s at stake if he fails (the return of the corrupt stranglehold of the elite ruling class) and if he succeeds (the restoration of our foundational principles). The Junior Year of the populist revolution is about to begin. Get ready to rumble.

Much as we dislike the substance of the Democrats’ promises, as Republican Rep. Tom Reed’s flirtation with voting for the Democratic rules package demonstrates, it is hard to argue with the appeal of politicians who actually do what they say they will do, even if what they promise is a disaster waiting to happen.

The House Republicans first day in the minority got off to an inauspicious start via Rep. Liz Cheney’s nomination of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. Our recommendation is that Rep. Liz Cheney fire whoever wrote the McCarthy nomination speech for her because there was certainly nothing in what she said yesterday that would drive any news cycle.

Don’t expect Americans to greet “new” Speaker Nancy Pelosi with smiles and embraces. Pelosi hasn’t changed from a decade ago when she was one of the most despised politicians in the country. Lovers of limited government should see her as a worthy antagonist -- and then oppose everything she does.

Yes, Romney has a lovely wife and family; apparently he has never banged a porn star. But he’s been an ineffectual, if not damaging, political leader who cares more about how to please the Swedes than how to help Americans in Kenosha. A wealthy man at 71, he still can’t resist the attention and power gleaned from public office. It’s a self-serving, not selfless, endeavor. Trump should welcome Romney’s character challenge not as a test of his fidelity to his wife but as a test of his loyalty to the American people and the issues that matter. In that contest Trump trumps Romney by a wide margin.

Whether the president is able to win reelection remains a huge question. Satisfying his base is not enough. He needs to win votes from those who might not have warmed to him personally. Cut Corporate Welfare. Defend America. Stand up for the First Amendment and the values behind it. Separate immigration from citizenship. Challenge business, cutural, and political elites to get to know America. Make the Democrats fight him on his own ground. As the next presidential election comes into focus, politics is only going to grow even more bitter. The president needs to do more than simply repeat his old talking points. If he wants both to change America and get reelected, he needs to advance some grand new ideas.

President Trump's withdrawal of 2,000 U.S. Special Forces from Syria elicited a chorus of self-righteous denunciations from the foreign policy Establishment, as well as expressions of concern from his supporters. Coming from the neo-conservatives, that is chutzpah, a Yiddish-Aramaic word that connotes unmitigated gall. It was the neo-cons, not Trump, who created the present mess in Syria that Trump must address as best he can. The U.S. needs to step back from playing whack-a-mole with current problems and concentrate on restoring our technological edge. For the time being, President Trump has raised the probability of a major war on Israel's northern borders with Lebanon and Syria.

What research on the Steele dossier has slowly revealed is the scope and logistics of the information operation designed to sabotage an American election. Players include the press, political operatives from both parties, and law enforcement and intelligence officials.

#NeverTrumpers like Mitt Romney won’t ever get onboard with the conservative agenda. The swamp dwelling ruling elites are too preoccupied with preserving their own power and playing nice with the opposition to “do the right thing.” Trump will be Trump -- and he’ll win in the end.

President Trump, if he takes the control of the conversation, can win this political fight because the truth, and the American people, are on his side. In fact, border security is such a common sense policy that even Chuck Schumer aggressively made the case less than a decade ago, stating, “above all else, the American people want their government to be serious about protecting the public, enforcing the rule of law and creating a rational system of legal immigration that will proactively meet our needs rather than reactively responding to future waves of illegal immigration. People who enter the United States without our permission are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who entered the U.S. legally.”

Democrats know they can’t disappoint their temperamental constituents or there will be a lot of spinning heads and projectile vomit. If the Democrats accomplish nothing during the next two years beyond a protracted and almost certainly doomed attempt to remove a duly elected President — and that is how at least half the voters see him — they will have revealed to their own voters that they can’t deliver on impeachment while once again demonstrating to the rest of us that they are incapable of governing responsibly. That won’t sell well in 2020.

Where’s the avenue for compromise? It might be for the President to take less than the asked for $5 billion, or it might be for Democrats to ask for something else to sweeten the deal. But none of these compromises are available because Democrats have remained committed to blocking any funding for the wall in their drive to make Donald Trump a one-term President.

Washington’s overall objective should be to bring peace to America, not micro-manage other nations’ conflicts. Washington policymakers come up with long lists of objectives which are not worth the cost, in this case essentially permanent war. Withdrawal from Syria is long overdue.

The always festive New Year’s celebrations were the calm before the storm where 2019’s political battles are concerned. 2018’s strife only figures to worsen now that liberals feel empowered to act on their aims. Democrats happily wall themselves off from reality -- an impossibility in 2019.

Does this rejection of the GOP in 2018 portend the defeat of Donald Trump in 2020, assuming he is still in office then? Not necessarily. To consider: Nancy Pelosi may want to close out her career as speaker with solid achievements, but she could face a rebellion in her party, which is looking to confront and not compromise with Trump. The national debt may be surging, but Capitol Hill progressives will be demanding “Medicare-for-all” and free college tuition. Trump-haters will be issuing reams of subpoenas and clamoring for impeachment. The diversity Democrats celebrate is one day going to pull their party apart, as the social, cultural and racial revolutions of the 1960s pulled apart the party of FDR and LBJ.